Bioisosteric Transformations and Permutations in the Triazolopyrimidine Scaffold To Identify the Minimum Pharmacophore Required for Inhibitory Activity against <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> Dihydroorotate Dehydrogenase
作者:Alka Marwaha、John White、Farah El_Mazouni、Sharon A Creason、Sreekanth Kokkonda、Frederick S. Buckner、Susan A. Charman、Margaret A. Phillips、Pradipsinh K. Rathod
DOI:10.1021/jm300351w
日期:2012.9.13
Plasmodium falciparum causes approximately 1 million deaths annually. However, increasing resistance imposes a continuous threat to existing drug therapies. We previously reported a number of potent and selective triazolopyrimidine-based inhibitors of P. falciparum dihydroorotate dehydrogenase that inhibit parasite in vitro growth with similar activity. Lead optimization of this series led to the recent identification of a preclinical candidate, showing good activity against P. falciparum in mice. As part of a backup program around this scaffold, we explored heteroatom rearrangement and substitution in the triazolopyrimidine ring and have identified several other ring configurations that are active as PfDHODH inhibitors. The imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidines were shown to bind somewhat more potently than the triazolopyrimidines depending on the nature of the amino aniline substitution. DSM151, the best candidate in this series, binds with 4-fold better affinity (PfDHODH IC50 = 0.077 mu M) than the equivalent triazolopyrimidine and suppresses parasites in vivo in the Plasmodium berghei model.